


Charmspeak and Explosions

by MidNightWriter24



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Annabeth makes the plans, Gen, Leo is an overworker, Minor Will Solace, Protective Jason, Tired Leo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:00:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26126149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidNightWriter24/pseuds/MidNightWriter24
Summary: The unspoken tale of why the Argo II was delayed. After the Buford episode in the time line.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Jason Grace/Piper McLean
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	1. Unhelpful Friends

**Author's Note:**

> Minor swearing warning!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, Leo overworks, Jason and Piper try to get him to not, and shenanigans ensue.

_Leo’s POV_

I was positioning another screw in place for the ship’s reactor supports when Jason entered Bunker 9.

“Leo, are you in here?”

“No Grace, I’m in China. Where do ya think I am?” I yelled back sarcastically, beginning to install the reactor.

“When was the last time you slept outside of this bunker? We haven’t seen you for days.” That might be true, I’d lost track of the last time I slept. It’s been awhile...

“Doesn’t matter.”

“I’m going to drag you out of there! Or I’m going to get Piper and she’ll do it!”

“Now dude, I’m working with some really volatile chemicals here so just cool it okay.” I NEEDED him to listen because I really didn’t want to have to apologize for exploding like 66% of Camp Half-Blood.

“Fine, you forced me to do this.” Jason said as he walked out of the bunker. Oh joy, soon I would have to deal with TWO friends thinking to be helpful when they really aren’t. Just what I need when I’m dealing with chemicals that could vaporize me in an instant.

_Jason’s POV_

Walking away from Leo without trying to bang some sense into his head was hard. How does he not know that he’s super important to the team? His well-being is way more important than the ship being ready early. The little guy hasn’t been back to his cabin for three days. Nyssa originally said. And none of the nymphs have seen him at the dining pavilion. So unless that toolbelt of his can produce food, he hasn’t eaten in far too long.

I see Piper up ahead, talking with Annabeth. Probably strategizing for the quest.

“Pipes, Annabeth, I need your help.”

“Let me guess,” Annabeth said, turning to me. “Leo is being stubborn and refusing to stop working on the ship?”

“No, Leo’s overworking himself so that... yeah basically what you said. Got a plan?”

“Athena always has a plan. You and Piper talk to him, try reasoning with him. If that doesn’t work, Piper should Charmspeak, and tell him to sleep for as long as he needs. That exact wording! We don’t want him simply sleeping until Piper tells him to wake up, that’s not real sleep. His body has to shut down and want to sleep for that to happen. But...”

“Alright, sounds like a plan. Pipes, you in?”

“Yes, totally. Leo’s not going to be able to work himself to death with us around!”

We went running off towards Bunker 9. Annabeth was shouting after us, but I’m sure that she’s just shouting encouragement. Right?

_Leo’s POV_

I heard the door open and two sets of footsteps entered. Don’t get distracted! Vaporizing chemicals! Almost done... need to secure the water from the Lethe next. A strap here, a screw there... done. Now the nectar, and then immediately afterwards the stuff from the Hunters of Artemis so that doesn’t explode on contact.

“Leo, you have to come out of there! Having a ship ready to fly early isn’t as important as you working yourself to death!” Jason was saying something, but I could just tune him out. Nectar done, attaching the time delay function to keep it from exploding...

“Clearly you aren’t going to listen to reason, so I have to do this Leo. Don’t be mad please!” My hand slipped, almost spilling the precious liquid.

“No Pipes don’t...” My objection was overruled when she spoke again.

“Leo, sleep for as long as you need to. We’ve got this.” Yes, sleep. I thought. Nothing will go wrong... wait. Explosions! Need to install time-delay! I tried to tell them but it wasn’t coming out right. Must... warn... them...


	2. Unhelpful Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, Jason’s beating himself up for not planning better and Piper calms him down, Annabeth predicted this and they realize how bad this is.

_Jason’s POV_

When Piper charmspeak took effect, we knew immediately. The banging stopped and Leo wasn’t protesting anymore. I started to pull him out of the ship and he was mumbling something about... EXPLOSIONS?!

“Leo what? Explosions?! Explain now!!!” It was no use. Under the coating of dirt and grease on his face, Leo’s eyes were closed, and his face slack. He looked so weird asleep, without the nervous energy running through him. He was holding a silvery vial in one hand, and some sort of contraption in the other, that stretched into the ship.

“Jason, what? You said something about explosions and Leo?”

“When I pulled him out of the ship, he was fighting the charmspeak. He mumbled something about ‘can’t sleep, explosions bad’. He’s asleep now though. Pipes, what do we do if this is really going to explode?!”

“Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm. He’s holding something that probably has to do with the explosions. Let’s get him to the infirmary and a Hephaestus kid down here to see what explosions we’re dealing with.”

“Okay. Got it.” I scooped Leo up bridal style. He was super light, like the weight of a sack of sugar. All bird-bones, and ropy mucles. Piper pried the contraption and vial from his fingers, and corked the vial. Oh man, what if we really screwed up?!

_Piper’s POV_

Jason was super tense as he laid Leo onto a cot in the infirmary. Anyone could tell that he was freaking out internally. Placing my hand on his shoulder, I reassured him. “Everything’s going to be fine. One of the other Hephaestus kids can figure it out.”

“Yeah. Sorry I’m just thinking about all the ways that this could have gone. Why didn’t anyone see this coming?”

“Someone probably did. Wasn’t someone trying to tell us something when we rushed away?” I looked at Jason with growing horror.

“Annabeth.” We both said at the same time, rushing towards the door.

“ANNABETH WE SCREWED UP.” Was the first thing out of Jason’s mouth when we found her sitting near the lake.

“Yeah, by not listening to the rest of the plan! Seriously, how did y’all survive the quest to save Hera?”

“We’re sorry! Tell us the rest, please!” I chimed in.

“Fine. I was GOING to say, you should wait a bit. I peeked at his checklist last time I was in the bunker, and he was going to install the reactor today. If interrupted, it could vaporize 66% of Camp Half-Blood. Oh gods. You interrupted, didn’t you? Oh gods!”

“Vaporize...” I whispered with shock.

“66% of CHB.” Jason agreed, also in shock.

“FUCK.” All three said at once.


	3. Everyone’s Panicking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Nyssa is super helpful, Jason is dejected, and Piper is an idiot.

_Nyssa’s POV_

I was calmly tinkering with a small project for the Demeter cabin, they wanted an automatic water dispenser for growing moonlace, when Jason, Piper, and Annabeth busted into the cabin.

“NyssaweneedyourhelpLeo’sasleepandwedontknowhowtostoptheexplosion!” Jason said, all on one breath.

“Slow down, Sparky. What now?” I didn’t understand a word that came out of his mouth.

Piper took a deep breath and explained. “So Leo hasn’t been sleeping for four days, so Iasked Annabeth for a plan to get him to sleep.”

“Which they didn’t let me finish explaining before rushing off.” Annabeth interjected.

“Right, yeah. And I charmspoke Leo to sleep as long as he needs to, after he wouldn’t listen to reason. When Jason pulled him out, he was mumbling about explosions, but fell asleep before he could explain. We panicked and went to Annabeth because she was still talking when we ran off, and we figured she might have predicted this. She was going to tell us,”

“That I snuck a peek at his schedule and he was going to install the reactor today and if he was interrupted it could vaporize 66% of CHB.” Annabeth said.

“So, we need you to figure out a way to stop it from exploding while we wait for Leo to wake up and finish installing the reactor.” Piper finished explaining and stood back. “That pretty much covers it.”

“So let me get this straight.” I said incredulously. “You want me to tinker with this ship that the kid built with a magic tool belt, to keep it from exploding, after you just solved the problem with the flying table?”

“It’s name is Buford, and yeah. Can you do that?”

“Yes, yes a million times yes! Leo hasn’t let anyone help him with the construction and we’ve been dying to get a look at the machinery! Let’s GO!” I said, already moving towards the door. “Oh out of curiosity did you let the door close behind you when you took Leo out?”

“Yeah, why?” Jason said.

“Great, we have to use the back way. The front only opens for the ‘flame of Hephaestus’.”

“The back way? That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Oh it’s bad.” I replied, gathering supplies from around the cabin. “We loaded it with boobytraps strong enough to stop an army from getting in. One wrong move and you might end up getting doused in Lethe water. Or shot full of arrows. Or doused in Greek Fire. Or...”

“We get the point.” Jason said, looking faintly green.

“So, Jason. You need to stay here. The tunnels aren’t designed for a bunch of people and some traps are organic, so I need Piper to charmspeak them down. Others I haven’t even seen yet, so I need Annabeth to help me figure out what I’m looking at. So Annabeth? Piper? You in?”

“Aw yeah girls trip! I’m in!” Piper said.

“Uh NO. I need to help fix my mistake!” Jason protested.

“I’m in too. Jason, you need to step back and let us take care of this. You check on Leo.”

“Fine, only because I feel guilty.”

“How long should we be down there for?” Annabeth asked, turning to me.

“Depends, probably an hour or two to disarm the traps. Then another couple hours to try and delay the explosion. Like four, maybe five hours?’’

“If you aren’t back in eight hours, I’m coming after you.” Jason warned.

“Fine, fine. Like you’ll be able to follow us. I’m temporarily disarming the traps, not permanently. Girls, meet back here in ten.”

Annabeth, Piper, and Jason left and I started to pack. Ten minutes later, everyone was ready to go. Piper stepped forwards, holding a toolbelt out to me.

“Hey Nyssa? This is Leo’s magic toolbelt. We might need its powers in the tunnels.”

“Thanks! That will be super helpful. I won’t need to bring this bag then!” I said, buckling the belt around my waist and dumping the largest bag. All together we had four bags. Annabeth had one, I had two, and Piper had one.

“The hatch is this way.” I gestured towards the lava climbing wall. “Annabeth, climb to that tree there. See the third branch? It’s actually a lever. Pull it to a ninety degree angle and climb back down.” Annabeth quickly did as I asked without questioning it.

After she clambered down, a rod appeared parting the flow of the lava. Behind the lava was a door.

“Piper, charmspeak the door and say ‘open up, Beckendorf says’.”

“Open up, Beckendorf says.” Piper charmspoke, and the door opened, rolling back into the wall. I pulled out a flashlight and we entered the door and saw a spiral staircase. Rummaging through the toolbelt, I pulled out a small rubber ball and sent it bouncing down the steps. Arrows impaled one step, four steps fell away revealing lava beneath, and two steps turned to clear crystal that another step would shatter like ice. Down we went!

“So, that’s it? All the traps?” Piper said loudly. Her voice echoed around and around and a rumble sounded.

“Seriously, didn’t you notice how quiet I was being?! Noise-activated trap! RUN!!!”


	4. What happens in the Bunker, stays in the Bunker.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper’s confused, Leo’s still asleep, and there’s a mysterious obstacle in the girls way, preventing them from entering the Bunker.

Piper’s POV

After spending 45 minutes disarming traps, running from monsters, and solving locks, you’d think that a door handle would be the least of our problems. But there we were, staring at an ordinary wooden door with an ordinary doorknob. Or rather, the space where a doorknob would be.

“We got this far to be thwarted by a missing doorknob?!!” Nyssa exclaimed incredulously. 

“Seriously. A doorknob.” Annabeth stated in disbelief.

“Alright, can the toolbelt make one?” I said, trying to stay calm.

“No, it can’t make contraptions. It can provide the materials to build one though.”

“How long will that take?” 

“Eh, 30 minutes or so.”

Just then a creak was heard from the door. Peering through the hole where the doorknob should be, I saw a certain problematic table. Buford!

“Buford, can you bring us a doorknob? There’s got to be one inside somewhere!”

“Actually,” a voice said behind us “the doorknob is simply invisible. Simply reach out and turn like there is a real doorknob.”

We whirled around in surprise. Behind us stood Hermes holding a package addressed to Annabeth Chase.

“Ack Hermes, what are you doing here?” Nyssa asked.

“A certain boyfriend sent Annabeth this. It’s full of blue cookies.”

“Of course Percy sent cookies through the godly mail system.” Annabeth sighed, shaking her head.

“Actually that makes sense for a change. If he sent them through the regular mail, they would arrive as blue, cookie-flavored dust. Stale blue cookie-flavored dust 6-8 weeks after he sent them.” I chimed in.

“Alright, thanks Hermes.” Annabeth signed for her package and turned the invisible knob.

“Remember, what happens in the Bunker, stays in the Bunker guys.”

“Yup.” We all said unanimously. No one could ever find out that we were thwarted by a doorknob.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so short! I just had to get Sleepy Death Boy out.


	5. Nectar & Moonwater

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They should have just asked Will...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another super short chapter.

Jason’s POV

Will had come by and checked on Leo. He pronounced that he had exhaustion that was ‘almost as bad as Nico’s after shadowtravel’ and predicted that he would sleep through the entire day. So he didn’t need an IV or anything, just a bath and a couple bandages on minor scrapes. The girls had made it into the bunker, but were curiously vague about the details of the traps they encountered. Nyssa was tinkering with the reactor now. She had analyzed the liquid and said that it came from the Hunters of Artemis and was called ‘Moonwater’. She thought that Leo might have been using it to substitute for sleep and meals.

Unfortunately, she had NO IDEA how to slow down the explosion, and Bunker 9’s sensors had gone off and alerted the entire camp to ‘EXPLOSION HAPPENING SOON’. Man, Leo was going to be so embarrassed when he woke up. So here I was, almost 24 hours later. Suddenly an alarm started blaring saying ‘Nectar Overdose in Bed 23’. Well, poor kid. There’s no way to slow down the nectar.

Will rushed past and backed up when he saw me.

“Jason! Perfect, I need you to come with me.” Will started to run again without checking to see if I was following.

“Why do you need me? I’m not a healer.”

“But you are strong enough to hold down the dissolving demigod so I can get her to drink this. It’s Moonwater from Artemis’s hunters.”

Reaching the bed, I held down the girl’s thrashing limbs. She was glowing brightly golden, but it wasn’t a soft glow. It felt like nuclear radiation, bad on multiple levels. Will tipped the flask he was holding to her lips and forced her to swallow. Eventually the golden glow was dimming, and settling down to a softer glow. Don’t get me wrong, it felt unfriendly like it might turn the radience back up at any second, but I could tell that she wasn’t in danger of vaporizeing anymore.

“How did Moonwater make her stop dissolving? I thought that was impossible!”

“Yeah, well Moonwater has an interesting effect on nectar. It slows down the combustion of cells, giving the demigod’s body the chance to metabolize and burn off the nectar before it wears off. Thalia gave it to me after the Battle of Manhattan.”

“So that’s why Leo had Moonwater!” All of the puzzle pieces started to fit together in my mind. Nyssa has said that the strange device was a way to slowly drip one thing into another. Leo must have been using that as the fail safe if the nectar was too volatile as fuel. 

Bolting out of the infirmary, I raced to Bunker Nine. Nyssa was hopefully still there, trying to slow down the explosion any way possible. She could connect the two vials before it was too late!


	6. That’s IT?!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The explosion is tamed, Leo wakes up, and in true Leo fashion, gets himself straight into trouble.

Nyssa’s POV

Jason burst into the bunker breathing hard, like he’d just run all the way here.

“Nyssa!” He gasped out between pants. “Gotta... connect... vials...”

“Which vials? How?”

“Moonwater and nectar vials, using the silvery thingy Leo made.”

“Why?”

“I’ll explain later just do it!”

Jason was acting kinda out of character so I pretended to do what he asked. This might not be Jason, it could be a monster! After I did that, he sagged in relief. 

“Alright, so there was this girl in the infirmary when I was checking on Leo, she had a nectar overdose. Will told me to hold her down, and he made her drink Moonwater because it slows down the nectar so she might have a chance at living and not   
death-by-spontaneous-combustion. That’s what the thingy is made to do, act as a emergency thing to slow down the nectar!”

“That... makes a lot of sense actually.” I turned around and riddled with it to actually connect the tubing. A droplet of Moonwater fell into the nectar and the hissing sound slowed and stopped entirely when a second drop fell. The warning alarms turned off, and the camp was blissfully quiet. For all of two seconds. Leo stormed into the bunker, with his head on fire. He didn’t look happy.

“JASON GRACE WOULD YOU CARE TO EXPLAIN WHY I WOKE UP IN THE INFIRMARY WHEN I SHOULD BE FIXING THE REACTOR TO NOT VAPORIZE CAMP?!”

“Um, well you see... Piperputyoutosleepbecausewewereworriedaboutyou. But everything’s fine, we figured it out and Nyssa installed the thingy-mcbobber so the nectar won’t explode!

“Oh. Well don’t do it again! I warned you that I couldn’t be interrupted! When it comes to mechanical things just listen to me for once in your life!” Leo looked marginally calmer but his hair was still on fire.

“Uh Leo...” I piped up. “Your hair is still on fire.”

“Oh, sorry.” He extinguished the flames with only a thought.

“Also, this technology is amazing! It looked like Hephaestus himself helped!” 

“Uh, well he didn’t, I built it all myself.”

“Gods Leo, you did all of this?! This... there are no words! Explain how you affixed the Wii controller to the defense systems and....”

I continued babbling about all of the amazing tech on Leo’s ship. The ship truly was a marvel! I got Leo to explain quite a few things that I fully intend to build later and incorporate into weapons, and he was obviously excited to have someone else so interested in his project. That being said, he grew more and more tired as he explained. Eventually he sagged, and almost fell flat onto his face. Jason caught him.

“Whoa there buddy. C’mon, let’s get you back to bed. Nyssa do you mind if some of the explanations have to wait?”

“Nope.” I unburied a cot from under a heap of mechanical parts and Jason laid Leo onto it.

“Thanks. I’m just wiped from running and all the fire...” Leo trailed off and fell asleep.

“Wait. All the fire? Those little head flames shouldn’t have tired him out this badly.”

We walked outside and back to the cabins. Evidently, Leo had scolded Piper already as the Aphrodite cabin was partially engulfed in flames. Puffs of differently colored flames roared up whenever a new pallet of magical makeup was consumed. Jason ran towards the blaze, probably seeing if he could help out by summoning a storm, but Percy was already extinguishing the flames with water from the lake. Jason did a U-turn and raced back towards Bunker 9. Man, Leo was gonna get such a scolding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not entirely happy with this ending, I’m probably going to fix it later.


End file.
